Ascent
''"Though I can't see, I could once. It wasn't much, and it wasn't clear, but I could see light and dark, and I know the difference." -''Ascent Ascent is a bipedal cybernetic villain whose body is configured for powerful, fast flight. He features in the Deviant Universe, primarily as a villain and main antagonist to Shadowshade. He also features in a number of unpublished stories including Shadowshade, himself, and a number of other heroes and villains created, illustrated and written by MekanikalTrifle. Placed firmly on the more anti-villainous side, Ascent's 'villain' tag comes from his complete apathy towards people and his willingness to exact grievous bodily harm to his aggressors. He sees no problem with hurting people that deserve it. Appearance Ascent takes on the appearance of a bodysuit-clad superhero lookalike with large, batlike ears. In actual fact, the entirety of his visible exterior is made of a combination of a synthetic, rubber-like material, lightweight metal alloy and liquid metal on his upper extremities. Inset into his face and arms, as well as his upper chest, there are a number of glowing coloured lights- these serve to inform others of his current mood or state. Many panels of his body are a dark grey in colouration with accents of a dusky violet. on the inside of his legs, his ears, shoulders and the base of his feet, as well as across his 'ribs'. A metal-alloy 'keel' structure very like that of a bird is seen to protrude from the centre of his chest, anchoring the incredibly powerful arificial flight muscles into place- without this, he would not be able to fly properly. His 'boots' have long, powerful talons connected to a mechanical system within them. When activated, the talons spring forcefully from his feet and grip into the surface he's standing on (rock cave walls, metal, tree bark etc) (Under Construction) History The person who would become Ascent was born as Carson McNair an unknown time ago. It is known, however, that the cybernetics project he was a part of happened over the course of a decade, and began when he was 12 years of age. Carson was born with severe physical disabilities that prevented him from living independently- he couldn't walk, or move his hands well, and his vision was meagre; he could barely make out colours, and the most of what he saw was shadows and light. Despite his inabilities, Carson posessed a very sharp mind, though he was known for introspection and lengthy periods of complete silence. He did exceptionally well in mathematics and business, proving to be quite the logical thinker. At 19, he was taken in and converted in a lengthy process to the highest-spec cyborg the company could create. Though the project itself continued for another three years, the now-robotic Carson found himself in storage for much of this time. There were some shows and expos of his incredible powers, but many found him to be a disturbing creature, and he found himself being the target of disgust and fear. After the ten-year project was over, he was planned to be shut down permanently and disassembled for further study. Of course, Carson had no say in the matter himself- at this point, he had no way of speaking, and his only means of showing his feelings were the lights on his body. He was packed away, shut down and locked in secure storage for six months until the contractors could come to take him to be destroyed. Because of the nature of his shutdown meant that his life-supporting systems were supposed to stop, it was assumed that his brain had died in this time. Luckily for him, though, a glitch in his programming caused him to only go into a hibernation mode, which went unnoticed due to the cuts in staff from withheld payments on the part of their sponsor. In hibernation, his body systems diverted their power entirely to managing his body state and health. Before the contractors arrived, an unknown inside agent revived the cyborg by remotely overriding the faulty shutdown command. By this point, he was fairly weak, having had no access to sunlight to power himself and using his power to stay alive. Through remote assistance wired straight into his head, he was guided out of the facility and away from his creators. After a while, he found he could go no further. His benefactor had left his head a good few hours before, and it was the dead of night. The light reflected off the moon was enough to keep him from dying that night, and when dawn came, his photosynthetic systems kicked in properly. By the end of the day he was up and running again, though a bit confused. On his travels, he started referring to himself as Ascent, the name of the project he was created in. After a short while, he met a small-time cybernetics enthusiast and tinkerer who had attended the last expo Ascent had shown at. The two, surprisingly, didn't get on well, but she fitted him with an electronic voice and rearranged his spinal wiring (which had previously been connected through his mouth, and to his spinal column) so that he once again had a mouth, and metal teeth. For this he was and still is eternally grateful, and it caused him to begin his quest for sight (and by extension, a proper face). Eventually his aimless flights and dodging the mercenaries sent to disarm him took him into the path of Shadowshade, and there he quickly burned an enmity into Shadowshade's daily work. Recent Activity Ascent's involvement of the day to day workings of the Deviant Universe is very minimal, as he prefers to keep to himself. He did, however become antagonising to a team-up of Shadowshade and Bear Brown in the Omega Event of 2013, aggravated by the green-fire destruction of the caves he was hiding out in. He fought with the two, and it culminated in him tearing Bear Brown apart with his claws and fleeing, only to be caught in the Genocide Wave as well as the other two deviants. Three months later, he awoke in a dry beach, hundreds of miles from where he disappeared. He had no idea of the event taking place. This time, he decided to continue his quest to regain sight as well as try to find Shadowshade, who to this date has not returned. This quest was fruitless for the most part, and he was properly defeated by his own crippling self-hatred by six months after his return. However, due to the Dark Dimension's portal appearing and his Dark-world counterpart being thrown into battle with him, he found a new way to reach his goal- take Air's place in the Dark Dimension, where cybernetics was a profitable venture. Unfortunately, he didn't bother explaining this to Air, and stranded him in the Light Dimension with no idea of how to get back to his home. Ascent has shown no hint of reappearing since then. Abilities and Devices Ascent's specially-designed cybernetic body contains several devices that can afford him some advantage over his opponents, though there are a few that have not been activated. As such, their purpose is currently unknown. His ears have an incredibly broad spectrum of hearing, and can be selectively controlled to hear anything he chooses within several miles.